


peppermint and plaits

by emyn ab morlan (gwenynnefydd)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accepting Molly Weasley, Coming Out, Expelli-gender! 2020, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Pre-Hogwarts, Trans!Ginny Weasley, Transphobia, molly weasley will kick dumbledore's ass to let ginny go to school as a girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25754218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenynnefydd/pseuds/emyn%20ab%20morlan
Summary: Molly has always wanted a daughter. Gin has never wanted to be a son.
Relationships: Ginny Weasley & Molly Weasley, Luna Lovegood & Ginny Weasley
Comments: 15
Kudos: 86
Collections: Expelli-gender! 2020





	peppermint and plaits

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IvoryRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvoryRaven/gifts).



When Ginevra Molly Weasley is born, a month early, she is not born under that name. She’s not even born as Ginny, nor under some related name like Jules or James. Instead, she’s born as-

“Gin!” Uncle Faustus hiccups the first time he sees her. “He’s no bigger than a nipper of gin!”

“His name isn’t _Gin_.” Molly chides, cradling her newborn in her arms, gentle and soft. “His name’s going to be-”

“Right, right, sure.” He waves away the protestations like flies. “But ain’t he small! Tiny as a wee nip of gin, that one.”

And the name sticks.

* * *

The problem with having so many brothers is that they tell you all about growing up a boy, but won’t tell you which parts are true.

“See, Gin,” Fred whispers conspiratorially in her ear at the breakfast table. “Percy’s speaking all funny cause he’s got _frogs_ in his throat.”

“His voice is breaking,” Molly scolds him, serving him bacon. “He’s becoming a _man_.”

“But that won’t happen to me.” Gin says with all the confidence of a seven year old. “I won’t be a man.”

“But it _will_ ,” George adds from her other side. “Except you’ll grow _crickets_ in yours.”

* * *

When the boys go off to school, Gin makes her way to the Rook to read about magical creatures with Luna, and to eat Mrs Lovegood’s biscuits.

“Mother went to see the unicorns in Shiraz," Luna tells her, over lemon milk and lavender shortbread. “The Iranian ones are so pretty - all red, orange and black.”

“I wish I could see a unicorn up close," Gin sighs.

“They only like girls," Luna’s tone is sad. “You _couldn’t_.”

Gin doesn’t argue, and the topic changes. But that night, she dreams of riding on unicorns with Luna, long hair floating in the breeze.

* * *

“Mum,” Gin asks one day, “Can I grow my hair long?”

They’re at the breakfast table, and Molly has roped Gin into making bread plaits. Molly starts at the question.

“Why?” she asks. “Do you want to look like Bill?”

“I don’t want hair like Bill,” she says, crossly. “I want hair like Luna’s. With flowers and plaits.”

There’s a pregnant pause, as if the room suddenly constricted in, tight and claustrophobic. But then her mother laughs, and smiles at her across the table.

“You’re a funny boy, aren’t you?” she says, and Gin sinks down into her seat, sulking.

* * *

Summer is the best time of year, not because all her brothers come home, but because Molly will take her and Luna to the pond to swim.

“Come on, Luna!” Gin calls from the water. “Take your shirt off and get in!”

“Gin!” Molly scolds. “She can’t take her shirt off, she’s a _lady_.”

She says that like it explains everything. It doesn’t, and moments later Luna is shirtless too and is diving into the pond, all gangly pre-teen limbs. Molly looks like she’s close to having a heart attack, and Gin nearly inhales water since she’s laughing so hard.

* * *

When Gin’s eight, she starts attending preparatory school too, in readiness for Hogwarts. The school is split into two halves - one for girls, one for boys. Gin finds the boys’ school horrible - her second-hand jumper is itchy, her teachers refers to her by her “real name” and the boys' toilet is always dirty and smells funny.

“Don’t you wish you could be in the girls’ side?” Gin asks Ron one day, watching some of the girls play skip rope out on the lawn.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Gin," Ron scoffs, and that’s the first inclination that maybe something isn’t quite right.

* * *

It had always been her mother who had cut her hair. At least, it was until Gin’s magic figured out that if it caused a catastrophe after Molly did the nice bit of washing her hair with peppermint soap, then her mother would forget to cut it.

It’s down to her mid-back by the time Professor Erroll declares her hair “far beyond regulation length”. He scrubs her hair with a boar-bristle brush and growls at her when she cries, and it’s _wrong wrong wrong-_

He barely gets one snip in before his desk explodes in a bonfire of Gin’s magic.

* * *

“What am I going to do wih you?” her mother asks, after the requisite parental meeting. Gin curls up on herself, feeling miserable.

“I don’t want people touching my hair, Mum,” she says, except that feels… inadequate. _It feels like cutting off a part of me_ , she wants to say. _Having boy’s hair burns me up inside_ , she wants to add.

“Then what do you want?” he mother asks, exasperated. “Don’t you want to look like a boy?”

“No," she says, and it suddenly all clicks into place. “No, I don’t.”

And that thought is frightening, and so she _runs_.

* * *

Molly is soon to find her and carry her home. She sits her at the kitchen sink, and washes her hair with peppermint soap, and then she kneels in front of Gin, waiting.

“What would you have called me if I were a girl?” Gin asks, after a long while.

“Ginevra, after your nana," she replies, tilting her head. “Do you want to be a girl, Gin?”

“Yeah.” Voicing the thought is terrifying, but it’s _right,_ like having long hair is _right_ and being called Gin is _right._

“Well,” Molly says, with a smile. “I always did want a daughter.”

* * *

On her ninth birthday, Molly gives her a replica Holyhead Harpies uniform and Gin refuses to take it off for a month.

On her tenth birthday, Percy buys her a coin pouch with “Ginevra embroidered in silver, and Gin immediately decides he will always be her favourite brother.

On her eleventh birthday, she stands in Peleder’s Pre-Loved Robes, and states she’ll go to Hogwarts as a girl. And there’s a pause, all breath being sucked out of the room, but her mother smiles at her, broad and proud.

“Of course,” she smiles. “Would you prefer a pinafore or longer robes?”

**Author's Note:**

> there is some thing quite fulfilling about writing a trans fic where the parent is 100% In Your Court once the mc comes out and also 600% Ready To Fight for the mc to be recognised as their true gender.
> 
> this is the molly weasley i will stan forever
> 
> I hope you enjoy this ivoryraven!!! this was such a great prompt, and I had so much fun with it!!!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] peppermint and plaits](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27396847) by [emyn ab morlan (gwenynnefydd)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenynnefydd/pseuds/emyn%20ab%20morlan)




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